My summer vacation – I say that with a wry little smile – is about over, and it’s time for me to get back to work.

This year, my summer vacation was more about doctors, lab technicians, pharmacists and naps than it was about artists, canvas or painting.  I know that into each life some glitches are likely to fall and mine fell hard this summer.  All things considered though, my ills were more a nuisance, albeit painful, than life-threatening.  I’m grateful for that.

And I’m happy to say that I’m now back with the art and busy getting ready for the October show.

I’ve rearranged my work space for the non-painting tasks, although my eye is always on the tubes of paint that are my personal Joy of Painting.  Color, always the color.  And I’m using other tools for tasks like attaching the all-essential D-rings and picture wire to each canvas.  An artist’s tools are truly many.

I’ve also made a first run at my artist’s statement.  I have mixed feelings about artist’s statements.  I’ve read many over the years, and the ones I like best are personal and don’t sound as if an art critic wrote them.

As a writer, I want mine to be more than a list of places I’ve studied and some arcane words about the mysteries of my art, though heaven knows, some of it is a mystery to me – the occasional “Where did this come from?”

In art school we learned about “happy accidents.”  In life, we experience them.  In artist’s statements, we try to explain and take credit for them.  I’m planning to just tell the story of how I got from there to here and why I care about that.

Stay tuned.